Intimacy
by Elisabeth Harker
Summary: Sequel to Seven Unlived Stories for Beth March.  Beth and Laurie's first experience in marital intimacy.


Notes: How strange that my first citrus flavored Little Women story ever should turn out to be Beth/Laurie of all things. This story is a sequel to my Seven Unlived Stories for Beth March if, and you probably have to read that one to understand this. Written because Emerald wanted to see Beth and Laurie's first intimate moment together, and because Rese wanted me to write a spin-off of the Seven Stories 'verse. Let me know what you think!

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Laurie wasn't sure that he wanted to do this. Beth was sitting at the vanity clad only in her nightgown, the side of her head pillowed in her arms. She was faced away from the mirror, and so she could not see how embarrassment had colored her cheeks and the tips of her ears.

She was quite pretty in her way, Laurie thought, as he forced himself to truly look at the woman he'd married. In the candlelight she was soft featured, sweet, and difficult to define. Some would have said bland, but Laurie knew better, and preferred to think of her as otherworldly. She was the sort of person who could have existed in any time or place and been much the same as she was in the present, for she lived in her own little reality, and it took quite lot of work to induce her to venture out of it. That was why it was so strange to see her flustered as she was now.

"I saw my cats do this once," she explained. "They made a terrible racket about it, and their was lots of biting and hissing involved."

"Well, you're not the hissing type, and on my honor as a gentleman, I promise not to bite," Laurie said, with a small smile. He could not laugh at Beth when she seemed so genuinely worried, and certainly not when he was so worried himself. He gestured for her to sit beside him on the bed, and she did, her face becoming even rosier as he pulled her close to him.

"You see," Laurie whispered between several tentative kisses on her neck, "No biting."

She shifted in his arms, but did not pull away. He _would_ do this, Laurie decided, and he would do this correctly. This last thing in the world he wanted was to slight Beth, or deny her his heart when he'd been the one to offer it to her in the first place. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her.

He'd been afraid of hurting Jo as well, when he'd tried this with her, and with good reason. Jo had been bony and brittle in all of the places where Beth was soft and inviting. Jo had been on the verge of death, yet she'd begged him _not_ to be careful with her. With her there had been no slow kisses, no gentle exploration, only a driving passion that obliterated all else.

Laurie raised his eyes to look again at the mirror. Beth's eyes were wide and alert now, as if she were taking in each of his movements. He did not think that she saw herself in the glass even though she was turned towards it now.

"Do you like this?" He asked.

"Do you?"

He sighed. He longed for her to do _something_, and decided that he would make her if he could. He had a part to perform as well, but he was not yet in any state where he could carry it out, and felt he ought to at least keep his hands busy while he was preparing his desire for its greatest feat of acrobatics yet.

Beth's eyes followed his hand as his slid it up between her legs, and then shut as he began his movement there. His first thought was that whatever he was doing, he had it all wrong. After all, it was not as though he had a terrible amount of experience, and with no sign from Beth, he wasn't sure how to proceed. Then, slowly but surely, quite probably unwittingly, Beth began to respond to him. A wetness began in the place he was touching her, and her grip on his free arm tightened. Most gratifying was her first sharp intake of breath.

"So you hiss like a cat after all," Laurie teased. Much to his dismay, Beth leapt up at once, her hand going to her mouth, as though to prevent him from hearing another such sound.

"Beth," he put his hand on her arm and she turned towards him, laying one of her hands uncertainly on his chest, right over where his heart was.

"Beth," he tried again, wishing he was not staring at him so, "It's fine."

"Yes," she said. "I know that." Then, turning from him with a strange smile, she walked about the room blowing out the candles until the last light was extinguished. She kissed him in the darkness after, and Laurie looped his arms around her back, feeling something very like relief. He had been afraid that she would not help him, that she would be mute and immobile throughout the whole ordeal, and he'd be left alone with an act to perform or not perform upon her. Now he saw that she was too good for that. She'd try at the very least - they both would.

"Don't we need to undress?" She asked when she pulled away. He nodded, planting a kiss of his own on her cheek.

"Why not take off your nightgown, and I'll join you in bed in a moment?" He suggested.

Another shy smile from Beth, who retreated to the far side of the room to prepare herself, her back turned to him. Laurie sat down, removing first his shoes and socks, then his trousers and drawers. He unbuttoned his shirt methodically, and left it folded on the floor beside him. Then he slid beneath the covers beside his wife.

"What can I do to make it easy for you?" Beth whispered, and if she had sounded just a little bit sad then, his heart would have broken in two. As things were he knew that she understood him and that he understood her as much as anyone could, and so he took her hand beneath the blankets, and taught her what to do and how to go about touching a man. If she was surprised to feel him hardening under her hands, she only showed it by burying her head against his neck, perhaps to keep him from knowing.

She did not make a sound as he turned her gently onto her back, but she did give a gasp as he drove into her for the first time, far too concerned about making sure he performed his duty to take it as slowly as he should. She reached around his back, her hands digging into his shoulders. It was over very quickly, and he lay on his back once he'd finished, comfortably tired, and thinking that it had not been by any means unpleasant.

He remembered how after his first time with Jo she had been full of anxiety over whether or not she'd done it correctly, and how they had spoken of that and everything else until the night was almost over.

Beth did not say a word, but scooted in closer to him. He was asleep before Beth was.

Morning came, and Laurie was the one with the questions. He pushed the blankets off of Beth's sleeping form and sat up, taking a moment to consider what he saw.

Beth was a woman, and a healthy one, with pale skin and a fine figure. He knew well her heart - her kindness and her quiet bravery. He thought that any man would be happy to be married to her, and though he'd always felt a stirring tenderness when looking at her, he did not think he had ever been near grateful enough.

He wanted to shake her awake at once and tell her so, and being the impulsive person that he was, he did. Beth took it in with a sleepy nod, and without making any move to cover her nakedness. Laurie could not help but notice how her gaze rested for a minute between his legs, then flicked quickly to his face, the blush starting once again over his features. He laughed at that, and ran his hand all the way down her bare back.

"Was that enough to put a child in me, do you think?" Beth asked.

"It usually takes several tries, I suppose. That's not such a terrible thing, is it dear?"

Beth smiled slowly and looked up at him, and though Laurie knew he would never forget who she wasn't, he did not think that their future prospects seemed so very terrible at all.


End file.
